The loyal and the lamb
by arkwingedsurfer
Summary: Willow and Xander must fight against the FIrst and Drusilla in order to find the truth behind a deadly prophecy. A story complete with an ancient Greek Slayer please review
1. Default Chapter

Post the sinking of Sunnydale and the beginning of the wakening of the Slayers.  
  
The sea brought forth a light breeze that fluttered the witch's shawl. Willow had wrapped herself snugly and looked over the railing of the small ship. It was night and in a few hours their ship would have stopped off at port and they would have to disembark. But it was just so beautiful to be sailing across the ocean at this time. The black sea was alit with ports from towns that hung up and down the Mediterranean coast. She had just left her cabin for a breathe of fresh air. When she heard Xander leave his cabin.  
  
"Hey will." Willow calmly looked over her left shoulder.  
  
"Isn't it beautiful Xander? Smell that fresh ocean air." Willow took a big sniff and closed her eyes as the salty air tickled her nose.  
  
"Oh it's just swell." Xander had turned a paisley green and rolled his eyes. "After swell, after swell." Xander's gag reflex fluttered a little causing him to lean over the railing and clench his eyes.  
  
"Oh I'm sorry Xander. I forgot you were sea sick." Willow's face melted into an "I'm sorry smile." Willow was always conscientious especially with her friends but she had spent the entire time wondering who had sent for them. Willow shook her head. The pressing matter at hand was keeping Xander from needing to swab the deck. Willow grinned she could see him with a giant cue tip.  
  
"Try some of this." Willow entered her room and returned with a cup of steaming liquid.  
  
Looking at it made Xander feel a queasier. It was clear and there seemed to have sticks and green things floating in it.  
  
"You sure about this will? Because I have no problem with making the black sea a nice shade of green."  
  
"It's only tea."  
  
"Alright." Xander took a big swig and felt better. The warm liquid that trickled down his throat left a cooling sensation that turned off his gag reflex. "Wow that was great Will. What's in it?"  
  
"It's chai. It's Indian. It's like drinking Christmas."  
  
" Well, Santa just dropped a few presents of wellness down my throat."  
  
Xander's humor always brought a smile to Willow's face or at least a smirk.  
  
"So will where are we going?" Xander moved a little closer and looked out at the picturesque surroundings.  
  
"I don' t know, exactly. The girl just told me to come to Greece and bring you. Something about stopping evil and somehow you're involved."  
  
A girl walked up to Willow, her rich black hair blown by the ceiling fan in the cheap city apartment. She wore a designer black skirt and a white sweater, her looks distinctly European.  
  
"Are you the great wiccan, Willow Rosenberg?"  
  
'This woman knows my name. This must be a dream. The last thing I remember doing was playing Family Feud with Melissa Etherage and Howie Mandel.'  
  
The girl smiled. "Yes this is a dream."  
  
"You're in my dream?!"  
  
"The oracle of Delphi can do many things."  
  
"Oh my Gosh! You're the oracle of Delphi? I mean THE oracle?"  
  
"No, I'm her messenger. She wants you to come to Greece with the Loyal. There will be a force to try and destroy you."  
  
"I'm sorry, what? The Loyal?"  
  
"Xander, bring him, he's really important. And let me see did I miss anything?" At first the messenger had an intimidating aura. But that quickly delineated.  
  
"I have a question."  
  
"Oh yah. That's what I needed to ask. Thanks for reminding me."  
  
"Don't you want Buffy with you?"  
  
"Buffy?" Her face crinkled in thought. "The slayer. Oh no we don't need the Slayer. We need you and.Xander?"  
  
"But you still didn't answer my question. Why are we going to Greece?"  
  
"You'll see when you get here. Please hurry a great evil will try to stop you and I fear is nearby." The girl disappeared into the darkness. "And that's all she said?" Willow smirked as she saw the incredulous on his face. "Yup." The boat gave it's single that they had docked. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- "Yummy little lambs all in a row." A vampire with beautifully mesmerizing green eyes danced past a line of dead people while sucking the blood off her fingers. Her fingers tingled and she shivered. "The're coming." She laughed to herself.  
  
0=80876678 hey guys I know this is kinda confusing with the very little backstory I just gave but this relates to the other three stories I'm currently doing. ( well also the one about Erebus but that's like ultra back back story, please review so I know whether to write the other three companion stories. 


	2. beginnings

The Villa was made of sandstone and marble. Xander rolled over on the satin sheets and felt the cool breezes swirl around the room. A girl with raven blackened hair walked into the room. Her form clad in a black and red silk robe. Two gold phoenixes across each breast and a sword down the center.  
  
"Xander Harris. My name is Acacia. I am a." Acacia's form blurred. "Oh shoot you're waking up. Listen to me Xander. We have to meet." Her words became a telegraph of intelligible words and sounds from the outside world. The only things he could make out was the Apolline Mount and something about twelve thirty.  
  
Willows voice shattered the last bit of sleep that he was under. "Wake up Xander. It's almost eleven thirty and you're still in bed." The ceiling fan made a soft whirring and the midday sun cast some light inside the cheap motel room.  
  
"Good Morning Will."  
  
"I've been trying to contact that girl that I saw in my dream. But there seems to be a very powerful magic that is blocking me."  
  
"Oh yah Acacia."  
  
"Acacia?"  
  
Xander's mind started wandering to the beauty that was in his dreams. But then paused. He felt guilty, Anya had died and he was thinking about this girl. Even before the apocalypse that sank Sunnydale, she was all that he could think about on those rare occasions where his life wasn't in danger.  
  
"Yah girl with black hair and."  
  
"And?" Willow picked up a hint of interest in her childhood friend.  
  
"And an excellent grasp of the English language."  
  
"Uh huh." It was typical Xander to fall for every pretty girl with a connection to the preternatural.  
  
"Well? What did she say?"  
  
"Something about meeting at 12:30 at the Apolline mount."  
  
"Xander! It's eleven forty-five right now and the Apolline mount is an hour away."  
  
Xander and Willow dashed outside  
  
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Greece 210 BCE  
  
A steaming platter was set before eighteen year old Dahlia, her twin sister eyeing her from around a corner of the kitchen. Cassandra glared at her sister. Their birth was a miracle to the small village of Palatos. It was foretold by the Oracle of Delphi that these two children will have a place in the world filled by no other. Which is not to be taken lightly, especially when your family specializes in sorcery and magics.  
  
The Oracle had foretold that Dahlia was the one to eat from the platter and thus become the next in line with the sight. Cassandra oozed rage. She wanted this privilege with all her being, it was as if giving Dahlia this right was an insult to magic users everywhere. She had practiced the family's magics and became proficient will all forms good and evil. She especially liked the evil side. Several times she'd catch some young girl or another talking bad about her family while walking through the village. Cassandra would snap and instantaneously the girl would bite her tongue or sprain her ankle.  
  
But Dahlia, she lived in tune with nature. She was passive, almost inert. To Cassandra, Dahlia didn't have the right to be a part of the family. She knew Dahlia's body hummed with the rhythms of the earth, and it's moods. But that wasn't what sorcery and magic was all about, to Cassandra it was all about power and strength. Dahlia had the gift for magic. But Cassandra had the talent. And it frustrated her that her own twin sister didn't care about harnessing the power that came so naturally. Each time she caught Dahlia lying in the grass echoing out power from herself to help a few flowers bud , Cassandra would channel her energies and shatter her twin's power center. Causing a negative reaction and a flood of energies which often lead to at least one small fire.  
  
But tonight was their eighteenth birthday, the day that would bring true glory to the family. Or so the Oracle had foretold it to be. Dahlia could smell a fishy scent eking out of from under the silver cover of the platter.  
  
"Dahlia tonight you will bring our family greatness. Are you ready to accept the mantle that will be placed on your shoulders?" Dahlia's father asked arms crossed in front of himself with an air of expectation and reserved joy.  
  
"I'm sorry, Father. But surely Cassandra deserves this more than I."  
  
Cassandra's ears perked. She had figured her heart's yearnings had affected her twin's mind.But alas her father didn't relent. They must do as the Oracle had said.  
  
Cassandra stood up from the place she was watching and stormed out of the back door of the kitchen into the yard. She bent over a few flowers and commanded the dewdrops to form a mirror so that she could view the sleepy village, hills of goat herders and houses with people that stunk of weakness and normalcy. A red flicker caught her eye in the north end of the village. There seemed to be a mob forming with torches. She could see the villagers and hear their voices.  
  
"The Oracle is dead. Who has the power to kill the prophet of Patmos and all of Greece, the witch Demarius and his family?" A lean man with coal dark eyes chanted to the crowd. His body was thin and gaunt yet his face carried an animal likeness that the darkness of night masked. No one wondered where the blood on his tunic came from and his tongue came out to catch the drop of blood he had missed from his meal a few hours earlier.  
  
'they stole the Borometz.' He thought to himself. 'That filthy human family stole it from me, Tavris the guardian of the treasure. The vermin don't deserve the gift of the sight. But we the dark one's, creatures that still pay tribute to the Old One's we have every right to it. '  
  
"People of Palatos! These witch's have caused your village pain and misery. Tonight the're doing a ritual which will destroy you all."  
  
Cassandra ran back into the house and tried to alarm her father and sister.  
  
"The're coming!" she exclaimed nearly breathless.  
  
"Sister. Who's coming?"  
  
"The villagers. Someone has killed the Oracle and the villagers think that we did it."  
  
Their father not alarmed by this news looked at his daughters. "I'm sure I can explain it to them. But for now Dahlia, you must eat more . You must fulfill the Oracle's prochecy."  
  
"Father." but before she could finish he was out the door running towards the riot heading up their road.  
  
"Dahlia, look at me. We may have to defend ourselves. Do you remember any of the spells that father taught you?"  
  
"Umm. a little."  
  
"Good. If father fails we may have to fight."  
  
"We have to fight." Dahlia's eyes glazed over and became a milky blue. Her head was tilted back and her mouth open. She could see her father peacefully approaching the mob with a smile on his face. She couldn't hear what they were saying but violence had broke out and she saw them grab him and start beating him. Her eyes although clouded over with a vision started to tear as she watched her father in a matter of minutes being beaten to death.  
  
"Dahlia! You had a vision. What did you see?" Cassandra asked trying to shake her awake.  
  
"Father's dead." She said between her sobs. "They killed him."  
  
Cassandra's raven black hair starting rising on it's own. Her very soul starting calling together the demonic and destructive forces open to her.  
  
"They want to fight our family then a fight is what I'll give them."  
  
Dahlia's face was now buried in her hands and she could barely keep the tears in.  
  
"Stand and fight damn it. You don't want to die. Fight them." A dark rage boiled up inside Cassandra and her sister could feel it. But this was not the way of true magic. It was not to be used like this. As the gates of the darkness strained to hold such power inside a few spirits and simulacrums had snuck out and became living shadows around the room. Cassandra's eyes grew wide and a wild laugh of enjoyment flew from her lips.  
  
"Sister please, this form of magic will only cause more death and suffering."  
  
"Leave me." Cassandra's gaze was like a demon's " You're no good to me. You've had the talent Dahlia, and you were blessed with the sight but now." Cassandra turned and picked up a bone from the platter and crunched it between her teeth. "Now we're both gifted. And since I'm more powerful than you there is no need for us to be twins anymore. So goodbye Dahlia." With a wave of her hand Cassandra was sent through the wall of the home and over the cliff. As she fell Dahlia could see her sister laughing as the men tried to enter through her force field. Snakes sprouted from the ground under their feet and whomever was bitten turned to stone. While falling Cassandra cleared her mind and harmonized her spirit with the oceans waters that quickly approached her body. Her descent slowed and eventually she stopped hovering a few inches over the water's surface. With a final look over her shoulder Dahlia cried two tears, one for her father who was lost to death, and the other for her sister who was also lost to the powers of death. 


	3. Little girl

Her serpentine movements were enhanced by the delicate angles of her pale arms as they slid through space and the dark. Her eye's were keener in the dark anyway, seeing little children with milk white eyes guiding her through the corridors under the earth. They wanted to play she thought.  
  
"Mmmm." She purred to herself. "It feels like home and smells like black berries and flesh." Her tongue flicked across her teeth and tasted the musty air. "Like the old one's. So exciting." Her body hummed as she neared the entrance into the domed area a few feet ahead. Her mind alight with voices that other's didn't hear nor could interpret, but she liked them because they spoke of her beauty when she had forgotten what her visage did look like once. Which is one of the perils of lacking a reflection.  
  
She remembered walking through the world with her William, her Spike, her darling. But now she walks alone seeing him in her head like she sees the rest of the world. In a vibrancy of colors and feelings that titillated her. 'She stole him away from me. She plays with him now." Her face becoming gruesomely animal as the thought of Spike and the Slayer. A delicious cinema of violent evisceration and flesh burning shimmered all around her. Painting the walls with her every whim bleeding the walls a warm ochre. In the midst of this carnage and giddy pleasures she was interrupted. A now soft music echoed into her mind like a vestige of innocence that she had killed long long ago, a smile crossed over her fangs.  
  
This was a lovely display and all but she had come down the catacombs with a purpose. She needed to find her. After pirouetting through the labyrinthine hallway she ended up in a large circular domed room. Movement caught Drusilla's attention, it had eyes that were sunk in, lips curled taut and gray, and it's flesh barely hung to it's miniscule form. The creature skulked to investigate the undead beauty. It's sunken eyes giving every indication of observing her form, Drusilla humored it by bending forward and whispering " Little, little, dolly. You get to be with the bad girl because she broke all of mummies dishes and danced naked on her graves." The thought made her laugh at herself in a way that only her private jokes could do. The tiny creature scampered away to the far back of the room.  
  
To the far back lay a circle of pig's ears and human hair some with bits of scalp still attached. In the center was a cloaked figure. The figure rose to it's feet.  
  
"Drusilla." The voice was female and old. She was far more ancient than the ruins that she called her home.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You are here because the Evil one sent you?"  
  
'The Evil one." It sounded so distinguished to her ears when it was said like that. It had been only four months ago when "the Evil one" had called her away from a pool of pisco demons.  
  
Her eyes fluttered back as her mind replayed the events. Kneeling over the pool as her raven black haired tapped the water and tempted the pisco demons to come and try to play with her. They answered her call. A blue creature with oil slicks for eyes and tendrils as a face gazed at the girl as an object of curiosity. It's slimy hands dared get close enough to touch her cheek as it stretched and broke through the water's surface. With reflexes faster than sight Drusilla dug her fingers deep into the dark cesspools the creature had for eyes. "Bad, Bad boy. You stole my pretty trinket." Drusilla's fingers quickly became warm as the pisco demon's blood began to disperse through the water.  
  
"Pet?" A familiar voice broke through her quest for her object. It was strong, puerile, and a lovely lovely sound to her ears.  
  
"My boy spike." Drusilla's eyes grew wide as she turned to see the great William the Bloody standing before her. Her fingers still dripping with the pisco's oily blood.  
  
"Hello Dru. Missed me?" Spike stood arms crossed and a smile gracing his face.  
  
Drusilla seemed to have glided a foot away from him. And in one swift cutting motion of her fingers sliced through his neck. But there was no blood and dust. Her fingers traversed his body without touching a solid entity. "You aren't my William." She said not in the least disappointed.  
  
"My Spike bleeds. You aren't sticky with blood but I know who you are."  
  
"Of course you know, pet. I'm the one that brings you those pretty pictures of death and children burning. You like those don't you?"  
  
"Oh yes very much." Carnage was one of the few things that could entertain Drusilla. The outside world mirroring her insides, her viscera quaked with anticipation each time.  
  
"Good. I need you to go to Greece. You must stop the Slayer's friends from getting the Borometz. Find my servant Cassandra she'll guide you." The First leaned forwards and Drusilla couldn't resist the urge to lean also and try and taste the ancient maybe take a nip out of its power and majesty. "Good bye love."  
  
"Girl! Pay attention." The old hag barked at Dru. She growled to herself and put a sweet smile on. No one had called her girl like that in such a tone for centuries. And those that did were usually large and drunk on shore leave from their ship. She loved that after they said girl usually they would scream. She would have lounged there imagining each face contorting in pain and death but she had current matters to deal with.  
  
"You have the sight as I do." Drusilla giggled to herself again. "But you didn't slide out of mommy like that did you? No. It was in your belly. The eye's in your teeth. It's still there I can see it." She started circling the old woman like a cat playing with a mouse. "You ate it. Gobbled it down." Drusilla's hand snapped out and reached for the old hag's mouth. The circle of hair and ears radiated heat. Blue fire crawled out of the ears in long burning chains. "Lovely!" The fire worms wriggled into the air, releasing no smoke, they wrapped themselves tightly on Dru's arms.  
  
Dru's eye lashes fluttered and she grinned baring her fangs in a silent "oh." They burned her skin of course. "That old watcher woman with the sight and naughty Angelus did the same thing to me. I remember this feeling." Fire was a contradiction and affinity for her, it was beauty, passion, and rage. But soft and warm, like her she thought. Dru's neck bent at an odd angle and the realization that either she removed her hand from the circle or her entire arm would have been immolated.  
  
With a flick of her wrist Dru pulled her hand from the protective circle.  
  
"Foolish girl!" the hag let out a cackle. "Do you think I'd trust a vampire? It was your kind that killed my father. But since we serve the same master. You will listen to me."  
  
Dru pouted and nodded. This woman wasn't any fun, but she was powerful and only for that reason she decided to stall leaping through the fire worms and drinking her dusty blood.  
  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 


	4. taxi

As the taxi approached their destination, Xander gazed out of the window. His eyes looked past the olive trees and the coastline. Then his mind started to wander, back to the day that he had lost Anya. After falling in love with her and nearly marrying her, in her final hour he wasn't even able to say goodbye. She had died in the fight to save the world, her courage empowering her to take the blade of a Bringer to protect Andrew. She had died saving Andrew. That thought made him smile. Many felt that Anya was uncouth and crude. But this proved to everyone else what Xander knew all along, that underneath her greed and insensitivity was a truly beautiful former demoness. It took a few years with a young man to unravel over a millennium of cursing and tormenting unfaithful men. Xander sat back and mourned silently in the back of the taxi. It had been two months since she died and Sunnydale sank but the fervor of that one-day truly was a double edged sword. The Hellmouth was sealed and buried under an entire town. But so was the body of Anya.  
  
"So why are you going there? It's just ruins you know?" The taxi driver looked over at Willow sitting in the front seat, his sweat dripping off his mustache onto his yellow shirt.  
  
Willow just replied with a smile and said, "We're here to see umm the architecture. Yah we're engineering students."  
  
"Ohhh." The taxi driver's eyes grew wide as if he knew something or another about buildings. "Well the Mount was built a long time ago over the remains of the original Oracle temple. It was moved much later to Delphi. This temple is all that's left from when the first Oracle died."  
  
"The first Oracle?" Willow's mind calculated her knowledge of Greek history and the magicks. "I thought that the Oracle was immortal. How could she die?"  
  
"Well." The taxi driver shifted behind the steering wheel. "Hecate's dagger. That is the only thing that could have killed the Oracle."  
  
"Hecate's dagger?" Hecate, the goddess of witch's and giver of visions to seers and diviners. "Why would she create a dagger to kill an immortal servant like the Oracle?." she wondered to herself. No one knows who had given birth to the goddess of the crossroads or who her father was. She stood for birth and death, but as time progress she became a being of the darkness walking the graves with lonely spirits and baying hounds.  
  
"Yes, when Hecate was still very young. She had given visions to a man of great wisdom. But sadly his wisdom could not save him from the insanity of knowing tomorrow." The taxi driver took his right hand off the wheel and wiped sweat off his forehead. " Legend has it that he had a vision and it was so powerful it drove him mad. Not only did he become mad but he became evil. In his insanity the man decided to bring about the apocalypse he saw, so he set off to find a girl and kill her."  
  
"A girl? The Slayer?" Willow thought to herself.  
  
"Crazy huh? Like killing one girl would destroy the world. I think someone should go kill my mother in law that would make the world a better place."  
  
Willow tried to suppress a frown and replied "Yup that's pretty wacky all right."  
  
"So whoever the girl was gets the dagger and is told by Hecate in a dream that the man is coming to kill her. The girl kills him and according to legend the dagger is lost. It went missing for years but the myth is that these witches had gotten the dagger killed the Oracle and planned to put their children in her place. But I mean do you seriously believe this? I think the Oracle just died of old age and her devotees covered it up with this dagger story. I mean all of this stuff about witche's and visions." The taxi driver laughed to himself, Willow just slouched over and wished she could be as oblivious and carefree. The mount slowly came into view, several fading rays of the setting sun gliding off the marble edifice.  
  
"Alright, here is your stop. Remember if you need a ride back to town give a call and I'll take you where you need to go."  
  
While Willow paid and thanked the taxi driver Xander trudged out of the car and shook his head. Right now he was going to talk to the Oracle this was no time for mourning Anya. Besides each night before he went to sleep she was the last thing he thought about.  
  
"Hey Xander you okay?" Willow asked noticing that he was very nonverbal in the car. She reached over and put her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Yah I'm fine." He said putting on one of his famous 'I'm not fine but I love you so I'll act like it' smiles.  
  
"We can talk about it later over ice cream, my treat. Okay?"  
  
"Yah okay."  
  
A shade behind the tree moved. Accacia was more vivid now then Xander and Willow had imagined. She stood tall almost regal with her olive dark skin and her white knit sweater.  
  
"Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg?" Accacia stooped down to see their faces. She had a beautiful smile and her brown hair was wrapped neatly in a bun. "We should see the Oracle she's expecting you." Accacia turned and started to lead them down a path sided with brush. If Xander didn't know any better he would have thought as Accacia turned around that Willow was checking her out.  
  
"No Xander I'm not checking her out." The voice sounded like Willows but it wasn't spoken. It was said in his head.  
  
Xander realized that he was thinking too loud and Willow had picked up on it. He bent over and started laughing in embarrassment.  
  
"Is something funny Mr. Harris?" Accacia looked back at them her face warm like the torches that hung on the cave walls.  
  
"Oh. No. I mean uhhh." Xander let out another nervous laugh.  
  
"It's okay Accacia. He's just a little edgy being around you."  
  
"Me?" Accacia pointed at herself in all of her innocence.  
  
"It's okay I think he's cute." She whispered to Willow. Accacia looked at a blank wall and proclaimed "We're here."  
  
"Umm where?" Xander gave a cursory glance and figured that there must have been at least a hundred feet of rock and calculating their course through the path the only other thing past the rocks was the ocean and a very large drop.  
  
"It's here." Willow replied matter of factly. "May I?"  
  
"Oh by all means Miss Rosenberg. You're after all the witch."  
  
"Uhh Will whatcha doing?" Xander asked while leaning over her.  
  
"It's a spell Xander. The're hidden behind this barrier." Willow's fingers fluttered before the rock wall. She could feel the ripples. Tiny reverberations of magic needed to keep the barrier up. With a smooth turn of her hand the barrier collapsed and became a glowing orange orb, revealing a golden room behind.  
  
"Wow Miss. Rosenberg. That's really cool."  
  
"Call me Willow or Will." With an opposite turn of her hand she let the orb go and it fell gracefully back into position clouding them from the outside world.  
  
&(*&(&(&(***&(&  
  
Hey guys just wanted to ask if you like how the story is going and please drop a review, your opinions are always valued. Much THANKS PEACE OUT MY READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 


	5. double trouble

Willow and Xander sat cross-legged before the Oracle's golden tripod. The Oracle sat behind the tripod covered by a golden veil, her lithe form sitting on a bench of marble. The room alight with the many torches that burned but gave off no smoke. Willow could feel the magics that made the fires burn, she could feel the energies channeling out from the Oracle as if her very presence was in tuned with nature. Willow marveled internally at such masterful control over the elements and natural vibrations. Accacia knelt before the Oracle and with her head bowed petitioned "Great Oracle, please tell us mortals how our future shall be."  
  
"Accacia." The Oracle lifted her head. As she lifted her head a gentle breeze blew the veil upwards and revealed her face. The Oracle had survived many years of strife but time was kind to her. The powers of sight had preserved her physical health but as a student of nature she found it best to age. Her appearance just a scant off of mid sixty, Xander leaned backwards and propped himself upon his arms. 'If she ages twenty years every millennia then hmmm she could be about.'  
  
'Xander!' in a hushed tone Willow's voice interrupted his arithmetic. 'The Oracle can probably hear what you're thinking.'  
  
"It's alright Willow." Willow's head turned to the Oracle. "Yes I am very old." A smile graced the Oracle's face and she began to stand.  
  
"Please great Oracle let me help you up." Accacia said while rising to her feet still not looking directly at her.  
  
"No no Accacia please. I can do this on my own. Please our guests must be very thirsty from such a long journey." Her tone wasn't of an old woman frustrated with her ineptitude but it carried a very motherly warmth to it.  
  
"Oh gotcha." With that Accacia jumped up and briskly walked into the backroom.  
  
"Great Oracle." Willow announced while approaching. "Your power is overwhelming. It's magnificent." Xander didn't actually understand what was so great about any of this. He lacked the capacity to sense the magics at work. The domed ceiling crackled with an invisible net that kept the earth above from raining down and crushing them. While above that net was a blanketing field of magic that protected them even further from prying eyes and scrying demons.  
  
"Yes Willow, what you're sensing now is true. There is a net above us and another spell set upon that. But you are a powerful sorceress yourself. Speaking for myself personally I'm still a little juiced from that spell that you did to release the Slayer's essence. Oh my I said "juiced" didn't I? I'm started to speak like Accacia." The Oracle laughed to herself.  
  
Xander and Willow both felt a little better, having a great seer speak eighties slang was an odd comfort for both of them.  
  
"Please Willow call me Dahlia, and you to Xander. Don't be intimidated. If you like I could." The Oracle fluttered her fingers in front of her face and spoke a short phrase in Greek.  
  
"Wow." Xander's eyes bugged out. The glamour made the Oracle appear twenty.  
  
"It's alright umm Dahlia. But can you please tell us why you've summoned us." Willow said just before motioning to Xander that his mouth was still open and gawking.  
  
"Oh of course. But I think it's best that I show you. But before I do." The Oracle stopped and looked over at the door to the back room.  
  
Accacia popped out carrying a tray, "Who wants cocoa?"  
  
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&&*  
  
Melissa Cane shook her head, she was reeling from whatever hit her. Her brown hair hanging in front of her face as she inspected the cut on her lip, somebody had punched her or something. Where was she? The room was dark and musty, but there was a sickly sweet smell in the air.  
  
"Come on Melissa. You gotta come with us to the circus, I hear Brett's gonna be there." Melissa's friend Sheyla leaned over her side to tease her. The bus hit a bump and that sent Sheyla flying over into the back of the bus seat in front of her.  
  
"Ow." Sheyla groaned.  
  
"Alright Shey but if I don't end up kissing him tonight then I'm never gonna talk to you again." Melissa said giggling. She reached out her hand to her floored buddy.  
  
"Right, got it. No smoochies then no talkies. But I gotta say Lissa wouldn't it be romantic? Sitting on the top of a ferris wheel watching the fireworks bursting and holding hands and then that famed kiss that eclipses everything else around you? Alright I have got to stop reading those novels they sell at the supermarket check out counters." That made both of the girls giggle. Melissa felt something like electricity trickle through her body, starting from the crown of her head a warm energy filled her very being. She closed her eyes for a second to fully appreciate the power that crashed against her being.  
  
"Hey Mel a little help here?" Sheyla asked looking almost pouty.  
  
"Oh sure, sorry Shey. Here you go." She said as she stuck her hand out.  
  
"Thanks. Wow Mel you got a grip now. Can't wait to see if you can use those on the rope climb for Mr. Gunderson."  
  
"You mean Miss Gunderson?"  
  
"Well she teaches PE and has more body hair then my uncle who lives in Russia."  
  
"Come on Shay." The bus had stopped in front of Halloway High school and the two girls traipsed out ready to face the horrors of being a high schooler.  
  
Melissa had touched something like spider web brushing against her face. That had jolted her back to reality.  
  
"If this is some sort of joke Brett." Melissa cut her threat short when she heard whimpering. She wasn't alone in the room there was another.  
  
"Hello? Is someone there?" Melissa's precarious steps towards the source of the voice quickened.  
  
"Stay away from me." It was a girl's voice she thought to herself. "Look you bastard! Do you know who I am? I'm a Slayer. And when I get out of here I will rip your painted face a new one do you understand me?"  
  
"Excuse me." It was too dark for any of them to see each other but what Melissa could make out from the voice was that the girl was about her age and also very scared. "My name is Melissa. Umm can you tell me where I am?"  
  
Something inside of Melissa told her to lean back a few inches. She obliged the feeling, knuckles had passed through the space where her face used to be.  
  
"You're a Slayer to huh?" the darkness had called her.  
  
"A what?" Melissa's day just kept getting weirder and weirder.  
  
"A Slayer. Here let's talk I'm Kat." She heard the flick of a lighter being lit and smelled paper burning. There was finally light in that dark room. Kat had a black choker around her neck and obviously dyed black hair.  
  
*&*&&*&*&*&&&*&*&*&**&*&&**&8&&*&*  
  
That little snippet may seem out of place but that's what's happening at the time when Willow and Xander are in Greece. This is the beginning of my second part to this three part concurrent story deal that I'm planning to do. So yah. Sorry if this isn't exactly what you'd expected to read about. It may seem kinda weird but I guarentee you it will make sense later. Cyah don't forget to review and THANKS FOR READING MY STUFF! 


	6. the Slayer Diana

"Here let me tell you the story of the Slayer and Hecate's Dagger." The Oracle brought out a terra cotta bowl from a shelf. She sprinkled a few herbs and some liquid from a tiny vial and mixed it. Xander was sitting with Accacia sipping cocoa and Willow peered over the Oracle's shoulder to see the contents. From the smell Willow could tell the identity of some of the herbs, belladonna and white asphodel she thought in her head. But some of the other ingredients eluded her there were a few dried leaves that shined an ominous scarlet glow and a straggly root that changed color from green to white in an instant.  
  
"The root is from a plant called antimox, it used to grow wild when I was a girl. But now it's extinct. Those leaves are from the flowers, which were placed on the Slayer's grave when she was buried. It still carries with them the blood of the Slayer."  
  
"Oh." Willow replied as she took a sip of her cocoa.  
  
"Alright the mixture is ready, Willow and Xander please sit there." The Oracle motioned with her hand to the center of the domed room. "Accacia I'll need your help."  
  
"You're gonna call upon the past and play it for our guests?" Accacia was guessing but deep down she knew she was right.  
  
"Very good Accacia you've been studying. Bring me a torch please." Dutifully and with her usual bounce in her step Accacia went to a wall and brought the torch.  
  
"Thank you dear." The Oracle smiled and lit the bowl on fire. The smoke billowed and snaked around them like ropes. Xander crinkled his nose. The smell was a bit strong and reminded him of some of the food that they had been served in the cafeteria. The food was bad even before one of the cafeteria workers decided to try and poison the entire student body. In hindsight Xander had suspected that the cafeteria women was experimenting on the right amounts of poison even before she was caught. She looked a little disappointed each time he returned healthy for another helping, even after scarfing down on two servings of meat like substance.  
  
The golden room now resembled a foggy day in London.  
  
"Xander. Willow." Through the mist they could hear the Oracle's voice. "I shall call upon the shadows of the past." As the Oracle spoke the smoke began to clear and in it's place came sunlight. A table and two chairs seem to have materialized out of the gray. Willow and Xander gasped at where once was cave now was a small cottage.  
  
"Thank you for flying Oracle air please keep your tray tables in their upright position and turn off all electronic devices as we enter our descent into Greece B.C." Accacia announced. "I love watching the past."  
  
"It's like a movie but it's free and, hey Will do you think she can do that for other things like." Xander's mind jumped forward a few thousand years and he could see himself wearing leather boots and carrying a six shooter holstered to his belt astride a stead as he rode into a lawless town.  
  
"Xander. Concentrate." Willow shook him a little to return him back to 400 BC.  
  
"Oh sorry." Xander said mentally making a note to ask the Oracle for a view of the old West.  
  
An older gentleman's voice was heard through the dying mist and invading reality, "Listen to me Diana. You've been chosen." The man wearing a tunic and sandals sat in the chair and glared at the girl staring through the cottage window, Diana of Cecily.  
  
Her eyes wandered the wilderness through the window. It seemed that after the change that had transformed her from potential to Slayer, life was a dream, more vivid than most but a dream nonetheless. Each punch her watcher had thrown that morning during training crossed over to her in slow motion, and with lightening quick reflexes she responded her fists following her eyes to any undefended area of her Watcher's body. Patreas called off the training session after only ten minutes and a possible broken rib or two.  
  
Her form was anything but willowy, it seemed that a few hours as a Slayer and already it enhanced the musculature of her arms and proud brow. Even the flaxen ends of her hair echoed with the Slayer's most important instinct, to stay alive. She changed her focus from the window to her Watcher, Patreus, a kind faced well educated man.  
  
"Patreus? Are you still hurt from this morning?"  
  
Patreus tried to stand and instead decided to sit down as his ribs were still injured.  
  
"Not as bad as it could be I could tell you were holding back." Patreus replied leaning back and resting his head against the back of the chair. " My girl's a slayer. You know Diana, there have been Watcher's who've spent lifetimes training girls who have never been chosen." Patreus wished he could rejoice fully but the knowledge of the duality of being a Slayer was heavy on his mind. Diana of Cecily was chosen to fight the fight against the darkness and it's children, but she was just a girl. She had the strength and grit to be a fine Slayer but a part of him wished that she could have a normal life with a wonderful husband and children.  
  
'Slayers are never given that option.' Patreus thought to himself with a sigh.  
  
"Patreus? I've never actually thanked you for training me. I know I was stubborn and made your job very hard for you after you told my parents that I had the potential to fight this war." Diana's hazel eyes shifted down to the table. "But now that I have the power I thank you for teaching me the ways of the warrior. You've seen such potential in me, a peasant girl, and I thank you greatly Patreus." Tears began to well in Diana's eyes, she had never been known to have emotional outbursts but today was different. As Diana bent over to hug the neck of her mentor, Patreus could feel little tears poking through this wise face.  
  
"I thank the gods that I found you Diana." He said still firmly in the embrace of the Slayer.  
  
Willow dabbed the corners of her eyes. The inside of the cottage swirled into a singularity morphing the touching scene into a Salvador Dali-esque collage of colors and misshapen figures.  
  
"Umm Will?" Xander grabbed his stomach similar to when he had been adrift in the middle of the Adriatic. Accacia noticed that Xander had turned green.  
  
"Xander. Oh are you okay." Accacia moved over to Xander as he hunched on the ground and started patting him gently on the back. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you got sea sick."  
  
"Is it okay if I throw up? I mean I'm not gonna some how erase myself from the time continuum am I?"  
  
Accacia giggled. "It's okay we're not really in the past. We're just observing it. I mean we're still in the cave so if you were gonna throw up it would have been on my." Before she could finish, Xander let lose the substances that had been swirling inside him. "Bed. It's okay. I needed to buy new sheets." Xander heaved another volley in response. "Maybe two pairs of new sheets."  
  
Where once was day had churned forth and placed them outside in the night air.  
  
"Oracle?" Willow addressed. "Where are we?"  
  
"We're a few days after Diana's awakening. The Spartans who were controlled werewolves in the midst of battle lost a few of their in the heat of battle. The city of Sparta has proclaimed that these "traitors" deserved the death penalty and that anyone who brought their heads in would be greatly rewarded."  
  
"So the Slayer is hunting werewolves?" Willow asked, since she wasn't a very big fan of werewolf hunting malevolent or otherwise. Being that her first boyfriend was one, she never liked the idea of hunting down another person just because they were a beast three days out of a month.  
  
"Well one of the Spartan generals had indeed taken three of his soldiers from the battlefield and lead them into a frenzy. Then ordered them to pillage and burn a town, in order for the great name of Sparta to be feared. In truth Willow the Spartan way of life is barbaric but is based upon following without question the lead of your superior. These poor men that have had the bounty placed on their heads are only outcasts because general Lycus ordered them to be." Diana shivered as the night whipped out a chilling wind. She had walked two miles from her cottage in a thin tunic, with her bow hung on her back, a blade hidden within the sash around her chest.  
  
'I wish Patreus would have told me to have brought something warm.' Diana thought to herself. She sat down resting her legs against the grass. 'I wish he would have told me more about what I'm doing out here. All he said was something about Spartans are werewolves and that there were a few Spartans on the loose. Then he gave me this bow.' She reached behind for the bow feeling the cool silver under her fingers. Each end of the bow was a wolf's head, within it's jaws carried large emeralds. The bow had a heft to it and she pulled the string and heard it snap back with an unmerciful thwack. 'If there were any werewolves prowling around I can handle them."  
  
A wolf's howl ripped through the dark. She realized that her body quivered now not from the cold but from fear. She pulled the bow close to her chest. And raced off towards the howl.  
  
*&*&*&*&*&*&***&*&*&*&**&  
  
I must thank all of you great authors that have contributed to the Buffyverse, Christopher Golden, people that wrote Tales of the Slayer. Without you guys I would never have the inspiration to write these. Also I'm thanking you and writing these to show my appreciation and that I value your work and creative styles. Review and tell me what you think of the story so far. Is Diana good or bad? Thanks guys. 


	7. Being the Slayer

Diana's feet slapped against the mud as the ran towards the howling. Her Slayer senses did little to quell her fear as she fingered the cold silver of her bow. The night was far too quiet for a fight like this and she had only a cursory instruction on how to kill werewolves. As she reviewed in her head the smell of burning wood and cooking flesh impeded on her nostrils. In a small clearing lay three men one with a helmet made of animal skins and a necklace of teeth, the other two men had carapaces of bronze and wore leather cuirass. She knew to keep a good distance away from them as their speed would most likely match hers and their arms would be longer, but she had the advantage of surprise. But counting again she realized that there was one missing.  
  
Willow and the rest watched on as the Slayer's gross calculations left her open for an attack from behind.  
  
Xander screamed "Look out! Behind you!" as he rushed the beast who's paws were about to slice through Diana's white tunic. But his body shimmered through the beast leaving no affect on the past.  
  
"We have to warn her." Xander's eyes pleaded towards Accacia.  
  
"Remember Xander she's a Slayer." Accacia gave him a reassuring smile.  
  
As Diana moved in closer to her prey, her ears picked up another heartbeat. In a blinding arc of silver and force Diana slashed the bow diagonally, it ripped through the cuirass and shattered the bone underneath. Now the reflective surface was splattered with wolf blood, so much for the element of surprise.  
  
The other two werewolves in the cuirass had found her, the first one leapt into the air fangs bared and claws at the ready. Diana rolled to the right avoiding the straightforward onslaught and quickly shot an arrow into her attacker. The arrow whistled as it shot clean through his right thigh taking with it a large chunk of flesh. He howled and collapsed near the body of his fallen comrade. The second one rushed at her from the side his jaws snapping, foaming. By instinct she flipped over her assailant and landed behind him. Opening his eyes the werewolf was surprised and disoriented.  
  
"Hey, I'm over here."  
  
The werewolf turned towards the Slayer and his head met with a bolt from Diana's bow.  
  
"Well done young Slayer." The genial congratulation was followed by a few weak handclaps. "You've killed my soldiers. Highly trained Spartan grunts."  
  
Standing before her was the general; the only werewolf still left standing. His lupine jaws held a smirk and his heavyset brow was wrinkled in a taunting, "come and get me" sort of way.  
  
"One girl to save the entire world, from the powers of darkness. I've been waiting for you. I've sent my soldiers to kill and mutilate entire villages to draw you out and here you are. Now Sparta calls me a coward, but when I return with the head of the Slayer I shall be crowned king of Sparta."  
  
"And how were you planning to get my head, before I cut off yours?" Her Doe like eyes steeled over with the ferocity of a fighter. Never before had she been so efficient with her Slaying and it felt good.  
  
"A Slayer with a sense of humor."  
  
"Ha ha ha." Diana's faked laughter was accompanied by an arrow whistling towards the General's heart.  
  
"HA!" With a sweeping motion the arrow was caught and crushed. The General howled and barreled at her. Something within her told her to block and Diana obliged preventing the general's fist from making contact with her skull. Finding her opportunity Diana planted a kick into the General's gut sending him staggering into a tree.  
  
"Not bad little girl." He said while unsheathing his sword. "Usually I like to stick with just claws but for you I'll make an exception."  
  
The General thrusted towards Diana's midsection and she paried each blow off to the side. But the force of the General's attacks shook her to the bone sending vibrations of pain up her shoulder. The General arced his sword up Diana did a back flip to avoid it, but it was a second too late. A rivulet of blood dribbled down her chin signifying how close she was to being killed.  
  
The pungent metallic scent of blood and steel was intoxicating to the General. It was a feast for his senses, his mind's eye flashed upon the havoc his blade could cause upon her angelic form a deadly dance of steel into soft flesh. It was a provocative idea.  
  
Diana even in the moonlight could see that drool had started leaking from the General's lips. "Ewwww. Bad dog." Using her bow as a staff she struck him against the head sending him reeling.  
  
The blow to his head woke him out of his dream state. The General was awake now and made another observatory glance at the Slayer. "You've stopped bleeding!"  
  
The Slayer flicked her fingers over where the cut used to be just to wipe off the crusted blood. "Well I guess I have. But you haven't." she smiled lifting the bow to display the end that was covered with hair, helmet, and a few skull shards.  
  
This was the final indignity she was going to die and he would feed upon her flesh. The General's strikes now became heavier and quicker, what before took little effort to push out of the way now took much more strength. Her arms burned each time she clanged metal against metal. Enraged the General using the force of his entire body caught the end of the bow and pressed Diana into the dirt.  
  
"You won't need this anymore." The werewolf's hands smoked and sizzled as it threw the bow into near by bushes. "I've won." The General flicked out his tongue to taste the sweat off Diana's cheek.  
  
Diana tried to head butt him but the General tongue snapped back into his mouth. She tried to move her body but his weight was just too much for her to lift.  
  
"It's been fun Slayer. You know, I really enjoyed myself. I think I'll just wait till the next Slayer is called then kill her and then kill the next one, and so on. But first I have to kill you. Don't take it personally, and don't worry I don't bite. Ohh wait yes I do." His jaws were large enough now to bite through her head; Diana shut her eyes and waited for her entrance into Elysium.  
  
"The knife!" Her mind screamed. Before the General's teeth could slice through her neck she reached into her sash and jammed the knife into his neck. The General's eyes bulged out while the dagger's blade severed major arteries and his spinal cord. Causing him to spasm and shake. Diana rolled the now gurgling General off of her and examined the damage that the fight had done to her. Both of legs were bruised and swollen, and one of her ribs had cracked. All of which should heal by morning, she crawled on top of a skin lying near the fire and closed her eyes to rest a bit before her long walk home. 


	8. the dagger

"Diana.Diana." The Slayer stirred a little. What was a pinpoint of white light became a radiant circle over the spot where she slept. The female voice was diaphanous and seemed farther away and yet it echoed with urgency and intent.  
  
"Who is it?" Diana asked sitting up and wiping the sleep from her eyes. The purple splotches on her legs had gone away and her cracked rib bound itself back together.  
  
"Diana." The voice sounded like crystals clanging together under a stream. "Wake up child. There is one who wants to kill you."  
  
Her eyes popped open with knife at the ready warily checking the forest brush.  
  
Willow with Xander in tow moved closer to see where the light was coming from.  
  
"Hey Will? So what's going on?" Xander asked siding up to her to get a better view.  
  
Willow squinted against the blinding light. "This is what the taxi driver was talking about."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"It's Hecate, she gave the sight to somebody. Seeing the future made him all wonky and now he's going to kill her."  
  
"Child. Listen close." A female figure emanated from the schism between the radiant light and the darkness surrounding it. Her hair was long and black with white interdispersed and her face reverted from an ancient hag to the visage of a youth. "I am Hecate goddess of duality and mother of witches." For a brief second Willow thought that Hecate's words had been pointed at her. "One of my servants has gone mad and now is hunting you down."  
  
"Let him come. I'm not afraid of some man." The Slayer said standing up. The fight a few hours before had left her resolute and sure of her capacities as a Slayer.  
  
"No!" The goddess slammed her foot against the earth and a channel of white slithered into the Slayer's eyes. "See what your foolishness will incur!"  
  
A malady of untold proportions played through her head. She saw her watcher valiantly trying to fight away a pack of vampires. But to no avail and his body was ravaged then turned. Once kind eyes replaced with the reflective surfaces of a soulless demon. The great city of Athens gutted and belied bleeding with the life of its peoples. Women and children festooned like ornaments across rooftops and doorways. Diana watched her history, her culture, burn to the ground.  
  
Tears now blurring her vision Diana begged to know how to stop that future from unfolding. "Oh great Goddess. Please tell me what I have to do."  
  
"Kill him." Hecate held no wavering in her voice.  
  
"But the sight, allows for immortality. I cannot kill immortal beings."  
  
"Yes you can. Take this dagger and plunge it into his body." Hecate rolled her wrist and a black blade appeared on her palm. The moonlight had cast no reflection upon the blade. Its hematite handle was placed within the Slayers quivering hands. " Forged within the fires of Tarsus and cooled within the river Styx. This dagger has the power to kill those gifted with the sight. Be on guard Slayer."  
  
"But wait I have so many questions. How will I find him? What does he look like?"  
  
"He will find you." With that Hecate vanished leaving behind no remnants except for an eerie glow. Diana touched the dagger and went through a few quick motions with it. For a small blade it carried an unusual heft each time she swung it the air sung.  
  
"Brace yourself Xander. The Oracle is taking us to some place else again. I can feel it."  
  
"Oh no." Xander's eyes rolled as he could feel it to. The sudden tug above his abdomen that seemed to pull outwards and towards the left. And all that spinning made him even more nauseas than he was before. 'On second thought, maybe I'll skip asking the Oracle to show me the old West.' They were back in the Slayer's cabin again. What was grass under Xander's knees had melted away to solid dirt floor.  
  
"We're here one week after Hecate warned her." The Oracle's voice was somber and low. "It will happen tonight, he comes for her as we speak."  
  
Diana was sitting across from her Watcher drumming her fingers against the table and looking bored.  
  
"Alright, Diana how many vampires have you slayed tonight?" her genial watcher asked.  
  
With a sigh she replied "Five. They wore rings each with a crest of an arrow through the wings of a bird. Now can we please focus on whoever is trying to come to kill me?"  
  
Trying to be sympathetic, Patreus reached his hand and clasped hers. "Don't worry Diana. When he comes we will be ready for him and you are strong enough to defeat him. You've taken out more demons in the last few days than many of your predecessors have in their lifetimes."  
  
"Yah because they've probably died after a month."  
  
This glib despondent remark unsettled Patreus even more. "Diana, you've been called because you have what it takes to be a great Slayer. You cannot keep going through your days now as if you were gonna die tomorrow, you don't know the future."  
  
A large explosion ripped out the back of the cottage. And from the smoke walked a man hunched over with yellow eyes and filthy skin. His body smelled of rot. "You may not be able to see the future. But I can." The man laughed exposing his black teeth.  
  
"Patreus run!" Diana's watcher had stood up and pressed himself against the wall in order to give ample birth for the two combatants.  
  
The crazed old man lunged forward and Diana stopped him in his tracks by flipping the table into his face. He may be a seer but his power was no match for a Slayer.  
  
"Not bad girl!" he snarled as his body and true vampire face came into view. Not wanting to be distracted by her watcher the vampire completed a roundhouse kick into his chest. Diana watched as her mentor slumped over unconscious.  
  
"Patreus! Vampire I'll enjoy killing you." Those days of slaying where vampires and demons alike had been eliminated with now careful precision and calculation meant nothing now. She was out for vengeance and only blind power and rage was her weapon of choice.  
  
The vampire's speed caught her off guard. He had made a wide sweeping kick towards the outside of Diana's legs causing her to lose her balance and go tumbling to the ground. Not wanting to give up this chance at an unprotected vulnerable Slayer, he began kicking her in the ribs, each blow sending waves of fresh pain into her chest.  
  
* One. Two. Now! * With the third kick Diana had wrenched the vampire's knee out of it's socket, causing the vampire to howl. Still lying flat on her back she twisted her legs around his torso like a pair of scissors and dragged him head first into the ground.  
  
Diana got up and stared down at him. She saw his eyes wild with blood lust. "You came to kill me. And I've been waiting." She leaned over his body with blade at the ready.  
  
The vampire screamed and his hand darted out into her neck. Gouging out an inch of skin and raining hot blood onto his dead body. "Mmmm." He rejoiced and licked his lips. "The blood of the Slayer is delicious. I've dreamt of this moment ever since I was reborn. I saw your blood raining down on me. Foolish girl did you think that you could stop a seer?"  
  
Diana's eyes fluttered as she started to lose consciousness. A Slayer's body healed preternaturally fast but a large gaping wound in the throat was something even her body could not fend off. The world started getting colder and her vision blurred, the pallor of her skin now matching the undead creature underneath her. Through her eyes she saw the vampire lapping up her blood like wine and laughing at her as she struggled to stay alive. She could not let the apocalyptic future come to pass. With her last ounce of strength the Slayer willed the black dagger into the vampire's chest.  
  
"It was a noble effort slayer but as we both know stabbing me in the chest with a blade is not gonna." The vampire couldn't finish his sentence. His face contorted into one of shock and horror as the dagger's blade unleashed a slithering dark that crept into his eyes. Thrashing wildy he tried to stop the onslaught of the mind but it was no use. The dagger's magicks were stronger than the demon that possessed him. With a shower of grave dirt and burning ash he was no more.  
  
"Patreus? Patreus?" The wounded Slayer crawled towards her mentor and laid her head into his lap. Patreus opened his eyes, stirred by the Slayers movement.  
  
"Diana?" he asked? Not noticing that she had been fatally wounded. As his eyes adjusted to the light he saw the stream of blood pouring out of her neck.  
  
"OH NO! Diana! I'm so sorry I couldn't help you."  
  
"It's alright Patreus." Her voice now coming out as shallow breaths. "It's not your fault. Please take this and keep it safe, it's very powerful." Patreus nodded and cradled his protégé in his arms.  
  
"I'm so sorry." Was all he could say as he rocked the Slayer into the great halls of Elysium.  
  
The tragic scene in the cottage blurred back to the Oracle's golden domed sanctum.  
  
"Willow, Xander, both of you must retrieve the dagger. It is imperative that you both keep it out of the First's hands."  
  
"It'll be pretty hard for the First to touch it let alone steal it." Xander quipped wryly.  
  
"The First has servants Xander."  
  
"Yah like those harbinger guys, no problem we can fight them."  
  
"Actually Xander." Accacia chimed in. "Most of the harbingers were killed in the sink hole that was Sunnydale. But the First has sent two vile creatures for this mission."  
  
There was a plethora of vile creatures Xander could think of and some he had dated.  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"My sister, is one of them." The Oracle said with a drop of sadness in her voice.  
  
Willow looked over her.  
  
"You're sister and who else."  
  
In all of the discussion none of them had noticed a dark figure sleek into the room.  
  
"Me." Everyone's heads snapped towards the female voice with the British accent. Drusilla gave them all a giggle and a wink.  
  
&*&*&*^(&***&*&*&*&*&  
  
Hey guys, just wondering if anyone is reading this and if you're enjoying. Cuz if not then awww sadness. Right so please drop me a review tell me what u think. without at least three reviews or maybe two or one. then I just might scrap this story. And move on. So yah. But thanks to all of you who do enjoy my writing. big hug cyah. 


	9. Awakening

Everyone that wasn't undead stood silent, stunned as the sly creature slinked towards them. Her entrance now known to the group, it seemed as though they were transfixed. All of them stood in a line and watched Drusilla's body slink and sway, arms carving rivulets of motion within the air hypnotic and sublime. Following the entrance of this undead vixen was Cassandra's sister, Dahlia her aged face not alive and young as her sister's but twisted and gnarled with the powers and tolls of black magicks.  
  
Drusilla pointed at the Oracle and growled playfully. "Your sister's here you naughty, naughty girl." Her sentence amplified by a striking blow to the Oracle's face. Yet the others did nothing. They couldn't. The vampire laughed at her own cleverness.  
  
Dahlia approached her twin sprawled on the ground. Her cold gray eyes flashed with malice. Willow could feel Dahlia channeling deep magicks, though she couldn't move. It was a spell older than those she knew of and with power only drawn from the First.  
  
" Sister. Let me look at you." Dahlia's hands cupped the Oracle's face. Those gifted with a capacity for magicks could see black tendrils creep from her palms into the Oracle's face, sucking out golden energy. "My, my you look horrible." The wrinkles that cracked Dahlia's face now made deep gorges in Cassandra's. Dahlia's cruel hands let go when her face was as young as a twenty five year old.  
  
The vampire took delight in watching the transmogrification from old to young. She did want to toy with the Oracle but there were others for her amusement. A demonic thought slithered into her brain. "The witch." Drusilla flashed a wicked grin at Willow. "Oooh I can feel it coming off of you. I can taste it. Black strawberries. Mmmm." Drusilla licked her lips, her tongue rubbing against her fangs and then the back of Willow's neck. Her cold tongue would have sent shivers up Willow's spine if she could have felt it.  
  
Her body moving rhythmically, she danced within arms reach of Xander. "Ahh the Loyal. Good-hearted tin soldier, all bits of virtue and boy. But what's this?" Drusilla's eyes darting upwards towards Xander's eye patch. "The priest has taken your eye." She began to chant low and hushed. Her fingers prying back Xander's patch revealing the gaping hole underneath. "I can see my reflection in your eyes." Another giggle trilled out of her throat.  
  
"And who is this?" Drusilla's attention turned now to Accacia. Her head crooked at an impossible angle.  
  
"That's my sister's servant." Dahlia hissed.  
  
"May I play with her?" Drusilla asked as she stroked Accacia's hair. "You know you look like Miss Edith." Drusilla's once doey serpentine eyes became wide with a look of exhilaration and shock. Willow could feel it, her still paralyzed body hummed with the vibrations of the scythe, the mystical energies of the Slayer.  
  
Accacia's fist jerked out freed from its magical imprisonment and slammed into Drusilla's face. Drusilla was a half second too slow and she crumbled to the ground. She became the Slayer. Her body now a highly tuned instrument in the battle against these demons. It seemed that the entrance of this new energy disturbed the spell that had kept them all in traction.  
  
"Bad girl." Drusilla growled and glared at the newly christened Slayer who was standing over her.  
  
"That was for the Oracle and this is for the others..." Accacia pulled her arm back for the strike but instead she was caught by surprise.  
  
"Rezonde!" Dahlia screamed and a ball of blue energy ricocheted towards Accacia's back. It was only her Slayer senses that prevented her entire back from being incinerated. Accacia made a tumbling roll to the left and felt the small of her back. Her fingers were wet with blood; instead of burning her entire back the ball had just caught her right side and made a large burn. With a whimper she tumbled over and fell unconscious.  
  
Focused on trying to blow up the Slayer Dahlia didn't notice Willow casting a spell. Her hair now feather white, she fluttered her fingers and commanded the air to "ENCASE!" A white cage of light appeared over Dahlia.  
  
"Xander get Accacia I'll take care of Dahlia." Xander scrambled over to the body of the fallen Slayer.  
  
"You're young and ambitious, not as powerful as I am but your potential is limitless. Join me. I'll teach you the ways of a true sorceress. Stop these parlor tricks and learn real magic." Dahlia flicked her wrists up and the cage shattered. "Try this." Dahlia's head rolled back and her eyes closed. Words that were unintelligible and guttural poured like sewage out of her mouth.  
  
Willow began to panic, her heart raced and every hope of winning seemed so far away. The grasp she had of the flow of nature was lost as her hair returned back to it's reddish brown. It was darkness now that flooded her head, feelings, memories of killing, and revenge.  
  
"I must stop this." The Oracle said in a low voice.  
  
"And how are you gonna do that sister? You're far too weak to even try a simple teleportation spell for one person let alone get all of them to safety."  
  
"I may be. But she isn't. Willow help me please." The Oracle stretched an arm towards her.  
  
"Okay." She replied rocking back and forth and breathing heavily.  
  
"Borrowed power is so weak." Dahlia spat.  
  
"Not hers." A golden rose appeared in the Oracle's hands. It's petals unfurled and drifted over Willow covering her in a cascade of gold, the other petals also fell on Accacia and Xander. "Keep them safe Accacia, go for the dagger and the Borometz." The Oracle's voice sounded hollow as the petals that had fallen on them became golden cracks in reality. All of their visions shifted out and the golden penumbra of the Oracle's sanctuary was replaced by the dull whir of a ceiling fan.  
  
&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&** hey guys well I'm glad that I got to finally update and I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others it's just that I've been really busy with work and school so I can't promise another one any time soon I'm sorry. But if you're reading this please review so I know that there are people who still read my work. Thanks much love and a big hug, 


	10. unconcious revelations

Accacia lied unconscious face down on the bed. Xander looked on at the body of the wounded newly born Slayer and the witch. Willow was propped up gently on the couch. Accacia's back had been badly burned from a fireball that she had barely escaped. Willow was fast asleep, the power needed to shatter the Oracle's magical barriers and teleport them to safety tapped most of her strength. Xander was the only one intact. It frustrated him that the others were on the brink of death and yet he had escaped unscathed. He leaned over her and brushed the stray hairs out of her face.  
  
*-*=*+*+*+*+*+*++*+*+*+*+* Accacia was now in a dream, her conscious mind was busy fixing itself. Synapses and neurons started reconnecting. Her heart diverted the blood that had made her brain swell to the rest of her body. Her subconscious was like a library that had survived an earthquake. There wasn't a semblance of order but the memories were there they just needed to be put back on the shelf.  
  
Accacia danced, her legs swayed majestically over the tops of the hundred yellow flowers. It was a funny feeling, her arms were light and the wind tickled her nose. A glint of gold caught her eye. With a childlike curiosity she bent over to spread the flowers and uncover the golden object. It was a snake. Yanked from her pleasant thoughts she stood paralyzed before the hypnotic vampires.  
  
Drusilla's eyes burned into Accacia's mind. She could smell the grave dust that lingered forever on the undead. Malice in her paralyzed body exploded once, the powers of the Slayer had been imbued into this girl. The entire fight she had with Drusilla played through with a flurry of kicks and punches. Methods of martial arts lost to antiquity moved her body, honed in the fires of rage. She slammed her fists into the vampire with precision. But the vampire was faster and seemed to have predicted and deflected every attempt. She could see the fireball coming for her back and the near miss that left her scarred and in pain. Drusilla licked her talon fingers and clacked them together. The flesh of seared dying Slayer filled her nostrils with a mouth-watering aroma. She stood transfixed with the blood rivers coming from the Slayer's back.  
  
"It's been such a long time since I've tasted of Slayer." Drusilla's mouth widened. Xander connected his fist into Drusilla's face. She staggered back, stunned, that her trance was ruined. The vampire laughed. "The little toy soldier is protecting her."  
  
"Yah well this toy soldier comes complete with holy water throwing action." Xander flipped a bottle of holy water out of his pocket and sprayed half the liquid into Drusilla's face. Her screams of agony were the last thing Accacia could make out as the golden petals encapsulated her.  
  
)8))*)*)*)*)*))*))*)*)*)*))*)*  
  
Accacia's hand caught Xander's before he could move the wisps of brown from her face. And in a forceful turn threw him over her bed and onto the carpet. The fear and rage boiling in her eyes faded away as soon as she saw that she had actually thrown Xander. "Oh Xander I'm so sorry! I was having a bad dream."  
  
"It's okay." He replied dusting himself off and checking for any injuries. "Slayers have violent dreams and well some are caused by the venom from a glarguhl...karmanishik?" Stopping in midcomfort to try and remember the name of the demon. "Well let's just say I've been pummeled by my friends before and I'm still standing so I think that deserves a big Hazaah."  
  
"So that's why the Oracle calls you the Loyal." Accacia opened up an enchanting smile. She scooted over and made a place for Xander to sit on the bed.  
  
"Yah know I always thought if I was a super hero I would had heat ray eyes or be super fast."  
  
"The Oracle has plans for you Mr. Xander Harris. She's seen it. And so can I." She said resting her head against his shoulder.  
  
"You can see the future to?"  
  
"No but I see you now and I can tell you are brave, smart, and your behind is cutting off the circulation to my feet." Accacia wriggled her feet from under him.  
  
"You left out one thing, I also do great feet massages."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
Xander tenuously placed his hands on her feet and pressed her arches with the flat of his palms. The tightness of her muscles relaxed as he circled several large knots on the balls of her feet.  
  
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&**&*&*&**&*&&*  
  
"Willow. Willow!" The Oracle's voice came weak through the din. Summoning enough power to break through a centuries worth of protective barrier left Will sapped and her mind wandered.  
  
"Where am I? Ohhh..." The familiar endless blackness surrounded. Roads carved through the dark led near shapeless figures into further caverns on night. "I'm on the ghost roads...I'm dead!" Will began to hyperventilate.  
  
"Willow."  
  
The Oracle's pleas for her attention became a little stronger and floated finally to her ears.  
  
"Oracle? Am I dead?" She asked looking around helplessly for any sign of a familiar face.  
  
"No child you're very alive. But this is the only place I could talk to you safely. Please listen. You must make haste towards the dagger. It is the only thing that can kill those blessed with the second sight. And the Helm of Acathallah only with it's power would you be able to break the seal that hides the Borometz from this reality."  
  
"Acathallah? Borometz? What?"  
  
"Please you must hurry. Cassandra will surely find me out and that vampire is on the trail of the dagger and the helm if she gets both we're doomed. Go!"  
  
Willow's mind tumbled from the ghost roads. Her body lurched up awakened.  
  
(*(&*&(*&&))&^*(T^^&(&*  
  
Hey guys, does anyone read this story? Lol just asking cuz I'm not actually very good about updating early but since Spring breaks coming up I'll have more time. So yah drop me a review and I'll get started on the next chapter, Cheers. ( Dane 


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